Capitalist industrialization centers on the commodification of labour, leading to inherent friction between employers (capital) seeking to maximize profit and workers (labour) striving for fair wages and safety.
1. The Bargaining Power Imbalance
Under pure common law, employment was treated as a simple bilateral contract (*Master and Servant*). However, this ignored the massive structural imbalance in bargaining capacity:
- Surplus Labour: In populous economies like India, the supply of labour heavily exceeds demand, forcing desperate workers to accept subsistence-level wages.
- Lack of Reserves: Unlike capital, which can withstand production pauses, individual workers cannot hoard their labour; they must sell it daily to avoid starvation.
🆕 Evolution of Collective Bargaining:
To counter this individual weakness, workers organized into unions. Collective Bargaining replaced individual helplessness with group power, establishing a mechanism for negotiating wages, working hours, and dispute protocols as equals with corporate management.